Julio Ochoa

Julio Ochoa is the currently serving mayor of Liberty City. His most notable works have been done in 2008. He does not appear through the game but is mentioned frequently in the in-game media, such as online websites and also during some missions and one of the helicopter tour. The closest he came to an appearance was in The Lost and Damned, while Thomas Stubbs III receives a call on his cell phone from Johnny Klebitz, while Stubbs is in a meeting with the mayor. Jon Gravelli claims he was to receive a visit from him in the hospital, as well as two US senators.

Ochoa has a campaign to remove the sale or possession of illegal firearms from the city and launched cases against Ammu-Nation stores across the country. During a helitour, the pilot mentions to Niko and the other tourists that Ochoa eased safety restrictions on helicopters and their pilots. Ochoa also settled the Diamonds case when he allowed Jerry Kapowitz to keep all proceeds on the sale of the diamonds after he found them, despite over a hundred claims of their ownership. The reason given was that it would be impossible to verify the claims. This would make him extremely unpopular with a number of people in the Liberty City underworld. Apparently, his term has ended as of the events of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars as Ammu-Nation is again up and running, although it is a website.

He is partially based on Fernando "Freddy" Ferrer, a Hispanic New York City politician who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2001 and 2005.

Trivia

Real-life New York City under Mayor Michael Bloomberg also has very strict gun control laws.

On www.whattheydonotwantyoutoknow.com, a contributor states that he saw Ochoa walking around Liberty City leaving weapons, explaining why there are weapons around Liberty City.